LONDON – New figures published Friday by the United Kingdom (UK) SpaceAgency revealed that UK could compete in a high value market to launch anestimated 2,000 satellites by 2030.

On his first visit to the site of a new spaceport at Sutherland, UKBusiness Secretary Greg Clark said that the spaceport could be worth 400jobs to local Scottish economy

In July £31.5m of funding was announced to support the Sutherlandspaceport. This is a key part of the Industrial Strategy to ensure the UKthrives in the commercial space age.

Commercial vertical and horizontal launch demand is worth a potential £3.8billion to the UK economy over the next decade and will support furthergrowth of Britain’s space sector.

He commented that thanks to the UK’s location, planned regulatoryframework, private sector strategy and space ecosystem, Britain has acompetitive advantage to compete for a substantial share of a market forlaunching an estimated 2,000 small satellites by 2030. – APP